Spending £10 per Week on Groceries

Ainsty

Hello 

Week 3 Review 

This week I had some good luck. A colleague was scheduled to attend  2 days of training but they handed in their notice so they were not allowed to go. I was given their place, which involved a two course lunch each day. I filled up on the lunch and ate soup as an evening meal. This means that the Bubble and Squeak and Vegetable Curry are still available for next week and I didn't make the rice pudding.

In the coming week, I'll use the last of the red lentils and the last of the HG carrots to make some soup. There still weren't any lentils available in ASDA. Where have they all gone? The Cooking Bacon was a good buy, there is still quite a lot left, and a small amount adds flavour and a pleasant saltiness. Having read @London_1's advice to collect, render and save the fat I'll do that from now on, but there isn't much fat in the Cooking Bacon.

Shopping 

4pts Milk - £1.55

Yoghurt x 1 45p and 1x 99p

Custard Cream Biscuits - 42p

Mushrooms - 50p

Bananas - 75p

£10 -£4.66 =£5.34

£11.72 saved to date.

Week Commencing 14th November

Breakfast 

7 x Porridge

7 x 80g HG Frozen fruit

Lunch

3 x Leek and Potatoe Soup

2 x Mushroom and Bacon Omelette 

2 x Carrot & Lentil Soup

Dinner

2 x Fish Pie HG potato, french beans and leeks

1 x Bubble and Squeak with bacon, HG potato, cabbage and other veg

1 x Vegetable Curry - Mainly HG potato with other vegetables

3 x Lentil and Squash Bolognese with pasta 

Desserts

Stewed Fruit 

Rice pudding

Yoghurt

Altogether I'm managing quite well but I'm getting a bit tired of the same desserts so any ideas for cheap desserts and puddings? 

Longwalker

So happy to hear you are still working on your challenge and looking to keep to a pretty healthy meal plan - Well done you xx

Im not a pudding eater, I prefer to have a more filling meal and maybe have a piece of toast or biscuit before bed if im hungry so for me. a nighttime snack would be peanut butter on bread or toast or a piece of cheese raided from the fridge or if im craving ( its rare) chocolate, a couple of dark chocolate digestives 

For me, a days meals are 2 pieces of toast for brekkie, maybe a bowl of pasta or something on toast for lunch on work days, then an evening cooked dinner. Days I dont work, I can usually hold on to dinner. Not saying you eat too much but perhaps you dont need dessert with every meal and keep that back for a wee treat ?

herebeme

Crumble is cheap tray bake dessert and you can freeze portions. I make mine with oats mixed into the topping as it makes it a bit healthier and they get nice and crispy. 

Make pancake mix - crepes for dessert, and make toad in the hole with the other half of the mix. Or you can also freeze batter in portions in freezer bags - so it’s more economical if you just want one pancake after a meal or for breakfast, savoury pancakes are good for lunches too - the mix is the same so you can use a lot of ways. You can dip fruit in pancake batter and fry it too (not healthy though!). 

Alternative is banana and egg pancakes. It’s literally just 2 eggs to one banana blitzed up. But I like to add some ground oats too and a bit of baking powder as pads it out a bit. Keep them really small, and they burn fast if you don’t watch them. This batter doesn’t keep. https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-2-ingredient-banana-pancakes-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-218658

Quick breads are cheap to make. Banana bread is really easy. Slice and freeze it so you don’t eat it too fast (I have no will power). Tea loaf is also good - nice toasted (and again, freezable). https://bitofthegoodstuff.com/2019/08/old-fashioned-english-tea-loaf/

Drop scones are yum. You can do cheese ones for a savoury dessert or sweet fruity ones. Nigel Slater has a good recipes in the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/oct/14/nigel-slater-drop-scones-recipes

Or regular scones. I usually split my mixture early and do half cheesy and half sweet. Mary Berry has the best cheese scone recipe. Scones like this are a nice way to get a regular cheese taste with much less cost than eating cheese chunks. 

Dry apple rings in the oven after you’ve finished cooking something else. Chewy cheap snack. 

Bread and butter pudding. You can save stale-ish bread up in the freezer until you have enough for a pud. 

Make lemon curd. Ok. The initial outlay isn’t cheap, but it goes a long way (a lot of recipes make a lot, so maybe halve them). I like to spread mine on homemade oatcakes, or put a teaspoon in plain yoghurt. And you can gift lemon curd jars as presents. 

If you are cooking something else in the oven, slit a banana in the skin longways down the middle, just on one edge, slip in a few squares of chocolate, wrap in foil and bake. Goes all gooey and lush, and you’re using the oven anyway…you could always skip the chocolate or use chocchips to save a bit more. 

You can make a roll of choc chip cookie dough and keep in freezer, just slice off one or two rounds when you want a nice hot dessert and bake. Again, easy to pop in the oven at the end of cooking something else. And much tastier than store bought. 

Shortbread cookie dough also freezes well. And the final biscuits also make lovely gifts if it’s hard to justify spending that much on raw ingredients upfront. 

Google vegan oat and banana cookies. Read a few recipes, it takes trial and error to get something that works for you. You can adapt by adding a bit of flour and baking powder to add puff. Or sugar if not sweet enough. And you can add choc chips or coconut flakes or sultanas for interest. But be warned they really aren’t like regular biscuits. 

Ainsty

Hello

@Longwalker I must admit I grow up having a two course meal at least once a day.  I've lost about 4 lbs so far so I don't want to eat less but there is no reason why I shouldn't have toast later in the evening if I'm hungry.  I can't eat too much fruit and vegetables because to do so upsets my stomach. Toast is a great idea so bread and jam have been added to the shopping list.

@herebeme thank you for the ideas for desserts, I'll try drop scenes this week as they seem to be the cheapest option and I have some eggs left from last week.

My weeks are falling into a pattern. I go shopping on one day a week only, with every day a no spend day. It seems to work very well because if I'm not in a shop  I can't spend any money. Two pieces of luck last week, firstly, I found a tin of kidney beans at the back of the cupboard. Half will go into the vegetable rice and the other half will be kept for chilli next week. Secondly, I was given 8 little pats of butter which are about to go out of date. They were going to be thrown out but I managed to save them. They don't seem fine.  I left the squash out of the squash and lentil bolognese, there was such a large amount there was no point.

Shopping

Tinned tomatoes - 38p

6 Eggs - 99p

4pts Milk - £1.65

Yoghurt  - 75p

£10- £3.77= £6.23

£17.23 saved to date

this week the last of the frozen fish will be made into fish cakes to be teamed with whichever HG vegetables I fancy, probably peas. The HG onions and carrots have been used up, except for a few carrots for Christmas lunch, so they will have to be added to the shopping list.  There are still lots of squashes left so one will be used this week in a curry.

Breakfast 

7 x Porridge

7 x 80g HG Frozen fruit

Lunch

3 x Vegetable Soup

2 x Beans and jacket potato 

2 x Stuffed potato cakes

2 x Fish cakes

2 x Vegetable rice 

3x Squash and Sweet potato curry

Desserts 

Banana custard

Drop Scones 

Toast with jam

Keep going pals 

RobM99

Looks good healthy stuff!

satchmo1

As you approach one month of your challenge, will you be continuing until Christmas? How has it helped your overall financial position (don't answer if that is too intrusive).

You seem to have enjoyed the challenge, and it has certainly thrown up some great tips and advice!

Ainsty

Hello

@RobM99 - Thank you, I feel well on this diet as long as I don't overeat fruit and veg. To do so gives me an upset stomach. My waistline and bum can do with losing some weight so at the moment it's a win-win.

@satchmo1 - I've managed to save money every week so I will send this buying supplies for next month. Meat, dried pulses, tins of beans etc. At the moment I am finding it relatively easy because I have lots of stored HG produce and other store cupboard items like pasta, rice and oats. I'm not sure how easy it will be to continue when these are used up.
I am doing this because I looked very carefully at my budget and the most expensive things could not be changed, items like the mortgage and utilities, others I cancelled like Audible or were about as cheap as I could make them like the mobile at £6 per month. The areas I could make savings were groceries, petrol and going out. Once entertainment was cut right back and the car only used to ensure the battery is kept topped up in case of emergency the only thing left was to severely cut grocery spending. The money I've saved is used to pay back someone who has helped me financially but doesn't have much money to spare. I haven't told them of my financial situation because I think they would refuse to take the money if they knew.
I am enjoying it and will continue for another month at least. I have some money put aside for Christmas week so won't count that as a £10 week. I can continue in January, as long as the diet remains healthy and I'm not forced to eat cabbage and potatoes every day. @London_1 manages without HG produce on £60/m. To spend less than £14 per week month after month as prices increase so quickly really is impressive.

Longwalker

HEY Im so glad you are still on this road, and still enjoying it

Its weird  in a way because whilst we had a good income I enjoyed saving, now we dont, and I have to, I find it miserable at times. But then I think to myself Ive been cutting back so much for years, theres very little to cut back lol

Fish cakes - use sardines or tuna, or really any tinned fish. Tinned fish is my go to for so much. A tin of sardines is about 40p at the moment , one can with mash and whatever flavourings you have around will make 6 fishcakes. Also have you tried pitta bread pizza? use the pitta as the base, HM tomato sauce, sardines and a bit of cheese ( actually I like anchovies more but will eat sardines on a pizza happily )

My one concern is your meals are becoming carb heavy. Dont get me wrong, I love my carbs, I could live on plain pasta with a drizzle of olive oil and black pepper. Trouble with a carb heavy diet, you are going to get sugar spikes and be hungry again quicker, or start craving sugar fixes. Worse still, you will feel sluggish

Im not a dietician, but I do know its preferable to eat veg grown above the ground rather then below. Seeing as you are coming to the end of your home grown, I would start looking at trying to hit the shops when final reductions are being made and grabbing reduced veg and if there is any - reduced fish and meat ( Im usually lucky with fish ). Dont forget, salad veg can be cooked ( the Chinese would never eat a raw cucumber for example ) . Also I cant mind if its been suggested, download the olio app and too good to go apps. They dont work for me as Im too rural but they do for a lot of people - with a try

Keep posting and the best of luck xx

Ainsty

Hello

@Longwalker - my meals are very heavily carbohydrate based, I use them to fill up. I've decided to use Myfitnesspal to track combinations of nutrients. At the moment I have sacks of potatoes in the store, cabbages, sprouts, kale, leeks, sprouting broccoli and parsnips in the ground and frozen beans, peas and fruit. Only the carrots and onions have run out. It's years since I've had sardines, great idea. 

It's funny that often when we have to do something it becomes a chore but can be quite fun when it is a hobby or a simple challenge. Do you find it's the relentless nature of having to cut back which gets difficult?

RobM99

Cutting back is a pain when you struggle to find something to cut back on. "Is it worth it?" Hmmm...  We could all stay in bed all day - cheap but bereft of anything else. Definitely not 'worth it'.

I've made a big saving in just not having a coffee out - it was going up to £25 a week at one point!   £3.35 a coffee at Costa...Not any more.  A nothing-special breakfast out - £8.40. Again, no more.

Given up 'booze', my story is elsewhere on the forum, not hard to find. Plus the bass guitar part time 'work' brings in £200+ a month and there's no rehearsal costs as we gig most weeks, so no need unless we're adding to the set list. Occasional rehearsals with bands I dep(utise) for and I insist on paying my share for the room (around £8-10  a night).
All that probably saves me £75 a week plus the earnings.